Monday, June 17, 2013

China develops world’s fastest supercomputer

8:50 PM

China’s defence scientists have built the world’s fastest supercomputer, capable of performing 33.86 quadrillion operations per second, surpassing the US Titan supercomputer, according to survey results announced on Monday.

Costing $ 100 million, the Tianhe-2 has a peak performance speed of 54.9 quadrillion operations per second, according to the National University of Defence Technology, which built the computer.

The computer’s predecessor, the Tianhe-1A, was the world’s fastest supercomputer from November 2010 to June 2011, when it was surpassed by Japan’s K computer, state-run Xinhua News agency reported.

Tianhe-2, or Milky Way-2, will be deployed at the National Supercomputer Centre in Guangzho, China, by the end of the year, according to TOP500, a project ranking the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world.